


Fortune

by Finalgirl



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Beverly Katz is the Best, Developing Relationship, F/M, Feminist Themes, Gen, Gossip, Grief/Mourning, Jack Has Issues, POV Character of Color, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Will Graham/Beverly Katz Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-14 21:17:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1279144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finalgirl/pseuds/Finalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a stressful day in court, the Investigators Three plus Will, Alana and Jack all try to relax together over dinner.  But some wounds have not quite healed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> Beverly's POV. Takes place a little while after Will's innocence is revealed and Hannibal has been arrested. Will and Alana are together, and Beverly has become friends with both of them. 
> 
> The characters are not mine. The quote in Alana's fortune cookie is actually from Garrison Keillor. Also, I'm posting this at the beginning of Season Two, so let's just assume that in this timeline, everyone who's alive at the end of Season One stays that way, and everyone who's presumed to be dead really is.

Beverly Katz rubbed her eyes as she waited in the lobby of the federal courthouse.   It had been a long, exhausting day in the trial of serial murderer Hannibal Lecter.  As tired as she was, though, she wasn’t as tired as her new friend, Alana Bloom, who was joining her now.  Dr. Bloom had been the day’s main witness, giving her account of the events leading up to his arrest, particularly as they related to her work as a consultant with the FBI.  With her was Will Graham, who Beverly also counted as a good friend but who had lately become something more to Alana.

“Well? How’d I do?” Alana asked, sounding exhausted.  Beverly knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t really feeling uncertain about her testimony, but she respected Beverly’s opinion as a veteran of many criminal trials.

 “You did great,” Beverly assured her.  And she meant it:  Dr. Bloom had hit all the prosecution’s major points, and remained poised through a brutal cross-examination.

“I thought so, too,” Will said.   He put his arm around Alana and she leaned into it, returning a one-armed hug.  Looking at them, Beverly was grateful that Alana’s time on the stand, both testimony and cross, had focused more on Lecter’s now-infamous dinner parties and on the murder of Abigail Hobbs than it had on Hannibal Lecter’s manipulation and framing of Will.

 “I’m just glad it’s over,” Alana said.  “Where are the others?”

Beverly looked around.  “I don’t -- oh!  Here they come.”

In from a side hall walked Jack Crawford, Jimmy Price, and Brian Zeller.  Their testimony was scheduled for other days, but they had come to be supportive of Alana.  The six of them, at the heart of the Lecter investigation, had become a close-knit iif sometimes-uneasy support system in the run-up to the trial, brought together by the very extreme events that they shared.

“There’s the woman of the hour!” Jack said.

“That was perfect, Dr. Bloom,” Brian said, as Jimmy agreed.  She thanked them graciously.

“Well, what now?” Beverly asked.  “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not ready to just go home.”

“Yeah, me neither, really,” Will said.  Beverly couldn’t help but smile.  While he would probably never be mistaken for an extrovert, he was becoming a little more outgoing.  While he had changed in a lot of ways since his ordeal, Beverly suspected that Alana’s influence also had some thing to do with it.

"We could all get something to eat,” Alana said, meeting with nods all around. “What’s everyone up for?”

“Your choice,” Jack said.

“Chinese, then.”

“Ooh!” Bev piped up.  “I know just the place.  Heavenly Dragon.  It’s just three blocks away, on Stillwater. Not super-authentic, but,” she shrugged, “it’s good.”

“All right then, let’s go!”

Beverly turned to her co-workers.  “You all can ride with me,” she said.  “No sense in all of us driving.”

In the parking lot, it turned out that Will had parked very close to Beverly’s car.  As she turned the ignition and everyone got buckled in, Bev saw Will hold the door for Alana, without making a big production of it, and saw Alana notice the gesture, also without making a production of it.  She could feel her passengers watching as well, but she didn’t expect they’d have anything to say about it.

She was wrong.

 "Okay, I’ll say it," Jimmy said as Bev pulled the car out of the parking lot, “I don’t get it.”

 “Don’t get what?’ Brian asked.

 “Graham and Dr. Bloom.”

 Jack chuckled, cracking a smile.  “It does seem kind of unlikely, doesn’t it?”

 “I’m happy for them,” Beverly said.  ‘I think they’re kind of cute together.”

 "Really?” Jimmy said.  “I don’t see what she sees in him.”

 “Jimmy!” Beverly cried, at the same time that Brian said “Exactly,” in assent with him.        “Well, I’m sorry!” Jimmy continued, “but he’s kind of weird, you have to admit.”

 Now Beverly was feeling defensive of her friends.  “You’d be weird too if you had to deal with the insights that Will does.”

 “I’m sure I would, but it doesn’t change the fact.  Don’t get me wrong --I think he’s a good guy.  The Bureau -- hell, the public -- owes him a debt if only for helping catch Lecter.  But Dr. Bloom is smart, competent, friendly, attractive, witty--she could be with anyone she wanted.

 “But Jimmy, Will is also smart, hella good at his job, sweet...” Beverly realized that she was glossing over friendly and funny, which only the people who knew Will best would ever use to describe him, “and she certainly thinks he’s hot.”  Jimmy shuddered theatrically at this. “They've been into each other for years. I’m glad they’ve got a chance to see if they can make it work.”

 Now Brian chimed in.  “What I don’t get is how they’re getting together after everything that happened.  I mean, it’s one thing to stay with someone through a serious illness or legal trouble.  But to start dating him after he was accused of serial murder?  After seeing him so broken down, in the nuthouse and in the hospital more than once?  Just the... _indignity_ of it all.”  He shook his head.  “She’s a better person than me, that’s all.”

 Beverly noticed Jack working a muscle in his jaw at this.  The whole team, plus Alana and Will, knew what Jack was dealing with at home.  Despite Brian’s disclaimer about already-existing relationships, Bev could tell that his argument was likely to be the least successful with Jack.

 “But that kind of thing is different for everybody,” Beverly said.  She felt Jack calm down as tangibly as if the temperature in the car had spiked and fallen again.

 “Besides, Will’s gotten his life back together.  More than the whole time she’s known him, Alana says.  They’ve both been through so much...that’s part of why I’m happy for them.  They deserve this.”

 Jack cleared his throat.  “You see, that’s my only concern.  I agree that Will seems to be doing really well.  But I still suspect that he needs her more than she needs him.  That kind of relationship will never be equal.  And I’m not sure that he has the --- the resources, emotionally, internally, to support her if she needed it.”

 Beverly had no response to this.  Even if she didn’t entirely agree, it certainly rang truer than any of the other objections.  Worst of all, it was an inherently feminist objection, which Beverly -- as a woman in a man’s field, much like Alana -- had to give some weight to.

 “Let’s just see how things play out, okay?” she said, unable to keep the hurt from her voice  “I’m sure they know what’s best for them.”

 “Oh, I wasn’t saying it was a bad idea,” Jack said.  “Just stating what I saw as a possible pitfall.  You’re absolutely right.  When it comes to matters of romance and sex,” here Jimmy and Brian shuddered exaggeratedly again, “people’s choices aren’t always logical.  It doesn’t have to make sense to us.  Just to them.”

 “Well, you know what they say,” Jimmy said, “sometimes love isn't enough.”

 By this time, Beverly had turned into the small parking lot of the Heavenly Dragon and found a parking space.  “Here we are,,” she said, turning off the car and yanking the emergency brake.  She felt a little like a cat whose fur had been ruffled the wrong way. The precision, emotional stress and occasional literal danger of their job caused her, Jimmy, Brian and Jack to function as a bit of a de facto family. She had thought that some of that had extended to Will and Alana lately, but now she saw the limitations of that, and it disappointed he

 Alana and Will were already in the restaurant, and had managed to secure the party an otherwise empty dining room.  Once reunited, the group was as convivial as if the discussion in the car had never happened, and even Beverly was able to put it aside.  A server came to take their order, and soon they were all engrossed in on steaming bowls of soup and warm plates of rice-based dishes

 As always, conversation started again after the initial mealtime lull was over.  Jimmy and Will traded funny anecdotes from their time in local law enforcement.

Alana and Brian traded food -- a crab Rangoon for a spring roll -- and he asked her about life in academia.  More familiar patterns emerged as well -- Will and Alana spoke, both separately and together, to Beverly -- but on the whole, Beverly was pleased to see everyone mixing well again.  Things even seemed friendly between Jack and the other two, which was hard-won after recent events.

 After a while, their server returned with six dishes of sherbet and six fortune cookies.

"Hey, everyone knows how to read these, right?” Jimmy said after she had left.  Will colored slightly.  Beverly had learned that he was actually really private about personal sexual stuff, and was uncomfortable with the kind of off-color humor (such as adding “between the sheets” to the fortunes in cookies) that was popular among friends these days.

 Apparently, Alana picked up on his discomfort.  “I’ve always been a fan of ‘In accordance with prophecy’ myself,” she said without missing a beat, demonstrating again her effortless ability to make everyone comfortable.  

 By now, everyone was breaking open their cookies.  “All right, might as well see what we’ve got here,” Jack said, unfolding the paper inside.  “ Your efforts will soon come to successful fruition.’” He nodded with thoughtfully.  “Hey, I’ll take this one as is, especially if it’s about the trial.”  There was a murmur of agreement all around.

 Brian laughed as he read his fortune.  “I better not add to this one. ‘You will soon find -- ’’”

 But he was interrupted by a strange, strangled cry from Alana.  Everyone looked over, to find her staring at her fortune with her hand pressed against her mouth.  She pushed out her chair and stood up hurriedly

 “I’m sorry, everyone.  I’ll be right back.”  And she headed for the door.  Her face was scrunched with emotion and her eyes were glistening.

 Will looked at the small paper she had dropped back on the plate, and his eyes widened with comprehension. As Alana walked past him, he reached out and gently caught her hand, causing her to stop and turn to him.  Because he was turned away from them, none of the others could hear what he whispered or see the question in his expression; but they did see her nod her head in answer, then nod to indicate the door.  They filed out of the dining room together, then ducked into another, empty dining room.

 The remaining members of the party just looked at each other, stunned and confused.  “Katz, would you care to tell us what the hell just happened?” Jack asked.

 Beverly picked up Alana’s fortune from the saucer where it lay between the two halves of its broken cookie, and read it.

 _Nothing done for a child is ever wasted_.

 Beverly sucked in a sharp breath, feeling like she’d taken a punch to the solar plexus.  Imagining what this fortune must have meant to her two friends, she found her own eyes watering.  Alana still grieved for Abigail Hobbs, and had, after all, just gotten done testifying to what she knew about her death.  Will was mostly at peace with Abigail’s loss, and was struggling much more with the death of Georgia Madchen, with whom he had identified all too much; but even he was not completely done mourning Abigail.

"Beverly, you care to tell us what the hell just happened here?” Jack aske

 “They’ll be all right, guys,” she told her co-workers.  “They got this.  Let’s give them some space, though.  I’ll check on them in a minute.”

 They finished reading their fortunes aloud, but without the previous enthusiasm.  Once that was done, Beverly stood and excused herself to go to the restroom.  Everyone recognized the pretext, and she did, in fact, swing by the  dining room that the couple had ducked into.  She paused just where she could see in but hopefully be out of sight, peering past a potted tree and through the scrollwork of the dining room's arch.

 The two had pulled out two of the vinyl-seated chairs to sit across from each other.  They were leaned in close together, their foreheads almost touching, and he had one hand on her shoulder and she had one hand on his knee.  Her face was streaked with tears, but at the moment they seemed to be sharing a bittersweet laugh.

 Confident now that they were okay, Beverly hustled in the direction of the bathroom.  She thought that Will might have glimpsed her out of the corner of his eye, but she was sure he understood that her intentions were good.

 She got back to her party’s dining room to find Will and Alana still missing.   Beverly’s co-workers looked somber, chastened, clearly having looked at Alana’s fortune in her absence.  Price looked positively hang-dog, in fact.

 Beverly crossed her arms, but her tone was gentle.  “Guys, they’re okay, but we can’t let them find us like this.”

 And so, the team managed to work up a friendly burble of conversation by the time Alana and Will returned, walking hand in hand.  Alana was smiling again, and the traces of her tears had been banished by warm water.

 “Hey, guys,” Beverly said, cheerfully but not too much so.  “I thought I’d buy us all a round of beer, unless you’re ready to leave.”  She had already discussed this idea with her co-worker

 “That sounds really good, actually,” Alana said

 “Yeah, I could stay,” Will agreed.

 And so, they stayed another hour, this time with beer and plum wine to chase away the chill of the trial.  Once everyone felt ready to drive again, they settled up and made for the door.  Beverly did make sure to give Alana and Will hugs as they left, the only acknowledgement that would be made of the evening’s earlier upheaval.  

 But a pall fell over Beverly and her passengers again once they were back in her car.  No one spoke until they were several blocks away from the restaurant.

 "Okay,” Jimmy said, clearing his throat.  “I’m willing to admit...Alana and Will, together, may not actually be the worst idea I’ve heard lately.”

 “Yeah,” Brian agreed grudgingly.  “And they do look...right together too, somehow, don’t they?”

 Beverly just smirked to herself.

 “And I’m willing to consider that I may have misjudged Will,” Jack conceded  “But then, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

 “Woah, hey!” Beverly said.  “You said it, not me!”

 Jack glanced at her sidelong.  “Don’t push it, Katz.”  But he was smiling just a little bit too.

 Jack, Jimmy and Brian had all parked close together at the courthouse, so Beverly drove over to where their cars were.  Her team-mates unbuckled and moved to get out of the car, but stopped when Jack made no such movement, but stayed staring straight ahead at his vehicle.

"Jack?” Beverly asked  “You okay?”

 “I’m fine, Beverly,’ he said, “but I’m thinking about something you said earlier, Jimmy.”

 "What’s that?”

 “Sometimes love isn’t enough. You’re right.   But it’s the best that humanity has been able to come up with.”

 None of them could add anything to that.  And so, they said their goodbyes, heading their separate ways into the night.

 ****  
  



End file.
